In this post I want to guide you a bit through my vision and what to expect in the coming months.
This means polishing the game until it's in a solid state with mostly the current feature set. Nothing is set in stone, but these will be the things I want to get done first.
Create a sword This is currently almost done. It allows the player to customize a sword in a historical design and choose from different hilts, blades and sword sizes to create something unique to fight with.
Better faction customization The current faction customization feels a bit vague and messy. I want to make it a guided experience where the player constantly knows exactly what he is choosing.
Campaign and Hardcore mode I will implement a campaign without a time limit where you need to conquer the entire map. Also planned for next patch is 'Hardcore' mode. In this mode your campaign save file will be deleted if you die.
Battle tutorial I am implementing a battle tutorial that takes a player through the basics of fighting a field battle.
Increase unit variety Currently the models are all a bit too similar. I am working on expanding the differences between factions.
Battle and campaign improvements Ongoing improvements will be made to the campaign and battles. This includes AI, movement and general gameplay feeling.
The long term goals are what I plan on archieving in the total early access period. This includes basic things like further optimization and animation work, but also big features.
Battle maps / Campaign map I will continue improving all battle maps and add unique elements to them that are in sync with the campaign map.
More customization options Customizing your character will allow more variety. You can choose your gender, base clothing, head, hair, skin tone and what kind of accessoires you want.
Game optimization There is still a lot of room for improvement in the area of optimization. On a technical level some implementations are still less than ideal. Fixing these will already increase general CPU performance.
Animations I am currently not happy with a lot of the animations. It's a mix of arcade and realistic mocap and it feels off. So it is my plan to improve this and create a cohesive picture.
Voice audio One of my big long term goals is changing all voice audio to the approriate languages. This is a complex and expensive process. Don't expect this anytime soon.
Game event cutscenes I plan on creating cutscenes on important campaign events. This will increase the immersion and drama of the campaign.
Siege Battles I am currently prototyping a new gamemode for them that will play differently from normal battles. I hope to show more about this soon!
I hope this shines a bit of a light on the plans I have with this game.
If you have any questions, suggestions or feature requests. Let me know in the comments! All feedback is appreciated.
Thank you for reading.
Patch Notes 13 December 2022
This is a patch addressing both battles and the campaign.
Seperated settlement income and food farming. Services changed to commerce. Raising your commerce level will now raise your income, while raising the farm level will raise food production and public order.
Player will now be 'exposed' when riding far from their formations. This means that they will take double damage and are very vulnerable.
1 - 5 keys now select formations for moving
Fix Archer stake damage, units can now correctly pass through from the back without getting hurt
Add battle stance to torch bearers
Spawn formations slowly instead of all at once (This should make the game more stable when loading in a battle)
show tooltips on various campaign elements
always spawn player formations in the correct order
Fix formation charge rotation
hold fire button is now rebound to 'H'
Loading screens now show game tips
Change Kennemers start army
Fix crash related to arrow on shield impact
Campaign map optimizations
Prevent player from causing a panic charge when solo attacking a formation
Show warning when player is too far from the battlefield
Improve formations detaching from fighting when moved away
Unify militia troop flags
Infantry vs Cavalry combat fixes
Only show move markers when the placer explicitly moves a formation
Improved skirmish army matchups
Units now seek closest spot to their location, preventing a formation completely turning around
Melee units(non spear) now also fight in ranks
Rename crossbow mercenaries to flemish mercenaries (English name)
Correctly classify spear and shield units as melee infantry
Fix campaign mouse focus issues
Add text to unit status
Stabilize character movement performance
Known Issues:
Water interaction is broken
Formations sometimes fail to pass through friendly archers
Patch Notes 11 December 2022
This is a small patch addressing some battle issues and it actually adds a tutorial to the tutorial campaign.
Add tutorial to tutorial campaign
Fix units charging through friendly formations under fire
Lower archer specific target distance
Improve cavalry charging
Update unit tooltip with food action cost
Know critical Issues:
Water interaction is broken
Don't use the word fiets in your name as a custom lord, this will cause a memory leak
Patch Notes 10 December 2022
This is a small patch containing some crucial fixes:
Fix slow motion persisting after exiting battle
Fix realistic player damage sometimes not giving the right values
Fix half of the factions being disabled for the main campaign
Fix some hover and focus issues in campaign UI
Fix elite units sometimes instantly routing enemy army
Voor de Kroon is now available in early access
It's time to draw your sword, Voor De Kroon is now available in early access!
The gameplay loop is complete and you can fully experience the campaign and battle features.
Conquer the low countries and fight in brutal melee combat. Outsmarten your opponents using poison, stakes and cunning diplomacy and develop your own settlements so they can thrive.
Expect a roadmap soon as I try to gather the first player feedback. I will also create some tutorials on how to play the game and what to expect.
Enjoy the game!
DEVLOG - Nearing Early Access
You can check out the new early access trailer here:
The trailer showcases some gameplay cuts and battle shots from the game. It showcases the new first person possess feature. This feature allows you to possess a unit from your formations and fight in first person.
Thank you for the wishlists so far and I will hopefully see you soon on the battlefield!
Kevin
DEVLOG - From start until now
Hello!
First of all, to all people who wishlisted my game, thank you very much!
I wanted to give a quick recap of the development so far in the first year.
THE START Voor de kroon started out as a generic hack and slash game where you were placed in the middle of a battle instead of commanding the battle. After working on it for a while I missed the features that made my favorite games.
OLD GAMEPLAY This is how the game started it's life.
FORMATION BASED BATTLES I started experimenting with formation based units. My implementation leans on actors that give orders to all the units under it's command. Based on that you can give orders to the formation themselves that will forward that.
OLD GAMEPLAY One of the first formation movement tests I did.
OLD GAMEPLAY Battle implementation of the raw system
STRATEGIC GAME A strategic metagame is the backdrop of your battles. Don't expect a full featured grand strategy game, but I am trying to fit in as many interesting things as possible. Currently you can expand your territory and conquer settlements, train units and there are some diplomatic options with the other lords.
OLD GAMEPLAY This was the first prototype of the strategy gameplay. It featured a card based system where you would enact policies based on random draws each turn.
CURRENT GAMEPLAY This video shows the new strategy meta game.
THE REST OF THE OWL I worked on the AI, graphics, models, gameplay and voila.
Fun fact: I probably used more project management skills than development skills because prioritization, planning and sticking to estimates are the most important thing when developing a project this size on your own.
OLD GAMEPLAY A trebuchet crew working hard. No sentient machines here.
OLD GAMEPLAY Implementation of the new controller friendly formation UI
CURRENT GAMEPLAY The addition of physics based extra's like physical animation really enhance the look and feel of the game. Notice the hand holding the sword bouncing with the galloping of the horse and the shield on his back. (Thanks PrismaticaDev for the solid tutorial)
I try to keep up with my devlogs from now on and write some blogs that go in depth on specific features and concepts of the game.
Until then,
Enjoy the nextfest demo and wishlist the game!
Watch the new Cavalry trailer!
[previewyoutube="vKnZjO6Xd3k;full"]
In this video you will see how the start of a battle between two cavalry units plays out.
A new look on the gameplay of Voor de kroon
With the new trailer I wanted to demonstrate the charging mechanics of cavalry in the game. Cavalry units will charge at an opossing formation and try to run them down.
If this is done against cavalry or infantry from the side or the back you will successfully knock enemies of their horse/kill them.
After a charge knights will drop their lance and continue fighting with their sword and shield, running down enemies and slashing them with their sword.
Good counters against this will be archers, they will shoot down the horses with a huge damage bonus when they are at charging speed and infantry formations facing the cavalry. This will stop the horses exposing them to be damaged from up close.
